828jm828 wrote:Hello,
I am a rock rhythm pianist, new to computer music. I get a good sound with Pianoteq on single notes and single chords, but the sound quality degrades as I bounce on chords and is even worse now that I've added a sustain pedal. Can this be fixed? Here's my setup
Dell Optiplex 9010
Intel i7 quad core 3.4 GHz
3 GB RAM
Nektar GX61 keyboard
Single Roland Boss MA-12 speaker
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
The first thing I would ask is, does this problem also happen when you monitor with a pair of good headphones?
Is the volume meter in Pianoteq pushing into the yellow or red with every strike? Try reducing the volume slider in Pianoteq (possibly compensating by raising the volume of your speakers or headphones) and see if that changes the result.
You don’t mention an audio interface, which makes me suspect you are using the audio out jacks on the laptop. Without delving into the details of that specific model, built-in audio is usually insufficient for serious musical use. If you or a friend have a decent USB audio interface meant for musicians, try using that.
If none of those exposes a weak spot, I’d say the next thing would be to create a sample (as short as possible) that shows the single notes sounding good and the chords sounding bad. Save it as MIDI, then render to FLAC. Play back the FLAC. If the FLAC sounds OK, but it didn’t sound OK while you were playing, we have to look at computer utilization problems (I can’t immediately guess what those might turn out to be). If the FLAC shows the problem, too, then try to share the MIDI and FLAC (along with what preset you used and any setting changes you made) with us and/or with Modartt support.